I’d give a copy of Anna Krien’s Night Games to every young Australian male and his parents. It’s not exactly a cheery holiday beach read, but I’m not alone in thinking this Walkley-nominated book is one of the essential Australian reads of 2013.

Why would you pair this particular book with this recipient?

At first, Krien’s book seems to cover a specific rape trial involving a young woman and a young Victorian footballer. Very quickly though, it becomes a forensic, unflinching calling out of an entire sporting culture – one that encourages young men to belittle and humiliate each other in ways that reduce women to collateral damage. In some ways it’s not an easy read but, to Krien’s credit, it is a compulsive one.

I’m not sure if “enjoyed” is the right word to use with a book such as Night Games. But for me it was a clarifying book, pulling together and illuminating old news stories and linking them in such a way that it feels like someone’s finally connected the dots. There are two sections of the book that have stayed with me: one about female sports reporters’ experiences, and another that explains the sexism central to sporting cultures and its relationship to servitude.

What is the best book you ever received as a gift, and why was it special to you?

Roald Dahl’s complete novels. I would’ve been around seven or eight, and my mother gift-wrapped all the Dahl books I didn’t yet own and inscribed every single inside cover (eg George’s Marvellous Medicine – “Do not do this to your mother!”). I probably stayed indoors for months after that.

• Benjamin Law is the author of The Family Law and Gaysia. Also gift-giving this week: Romy Ash, Tony Birch, Eleanor Catton and Hannah Kent

We asked Australian authors to choose a book as a gift and who they would give it to. Here, John Safran explains why he chose Jack Marx's tale of fame, and downfall as the perfect stocking filler for Justin Bieber